Gulfstream Represents Coming Of Age For 3-year-olds

January 15, 1989|By DAVE JOSEPH, Racing Writer

There was reason last winter to get excited about 3-year-olds in South Florida.

Trainer Woody Stephens was at Hialeah Park preparing Eclipse Award winner Forty Niner for his seasonal debut, the colorful John Campo had won the unusually early Flamingo Stakes with Cherokee Colony, and trainer Shug McGaughey appeared to have something special in a lightly raced colt named Seeking the Gold.

The winter meeting at Gulfstream Park brought together 3-year-olds who would distinguish themselves throughout the year in many of the major Grade I races. This year, however, things are not as neatly defined.

Eclipse Award winner Easy Goer, and his highly regarded stablemate Fast Play, are both at McGaughey`s Gulfstream barn, but they may not see action in Florida this winter. Fast Play, winner of the Grade I Remsen Stakes Nov. 19, is recovering from arthroscopic surgery, while Easy Goer may be pointed toward Gulfstream`s $65,000 Swale Stakes March 4.

Trapp Mountain, winner of the Grade I Belmont Futurity and Grade II Saratoga Special, is also at Gulfstream, but trainer Rusty Arnold said Saturday morning that the colt will not run at Gulfstream.

``He`s been given a rest,`` Arnold said. ``We`ll be ready to breeze him sometime in the next two weeks.``

So who will run at Gulfstream in the 40 days leading up to its 38th Florida Derby? The names to remember may come from Arnold`s impressive stable.

Loblolly Stable`s Traskwood, a son of Believe It who won the Grade II Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct Dec. 17, is being pointed toward Gulfstream`s Fountain of Youth Stakes, the final prep for the Florida Derby.

A winner of a maiden race and allowance race going into the Nashua, Traskwood easily won the 1 1/16 mile under Angel Cordero Jr., who would later remark: ``It has been a long time since I`ve been on a horse that finished like that.``

``If everything goes well, he`ll be in the Fountain of Youth,`` Arnold said, ``and (Cordero) will be here to ride him.``

Harperstown, a Devil`s Bag colt who broke his maiden at Saratoga last summer for Arnold, will run in an allowance race at Gulfstream in February, while Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes winner Tricky Creek will make his debut in the Hutcheson Jan. 28.

Of the local celebrities, Tropical Park Derby winner Big Stanley and In Reality winner Silver Sunsets will make their next starts in the Fountain of Youth.

Trainer George Gianos said Big Stanley is back in training after grabbing a quarter in the Derby. Gianos said, ``We`ll stick with (jockey) Jacinto (Vasquez) in the Fountain of Youth.``

Silver Sunsets, who didn`t hit the board in the Derby after finishing third in the Remsen, ``was a little down in the paddock on Derby day,`` according to trainer Luis Olivares. The Silver Buck colt was running on Lasix for the first time in the Derby.

``Maybe the Lasix knocked him out a little,`` Olivares said. ``He was just down. We freshened him up, though, and he`s doing well.``

While no colt has yet to impress the way Seeking the Gold did early last year, there is one colt who could develop in Florida.

Darby Dan Farm`s Ninety Years Young, fourth in his debut in a sprint across Gulfstream on opening day, has been the subject of great anticipation since last summer. The big, chestnut son of Northern Baby, unraced as a juvenile, is said to have great ability. His connections were happy with his first race and will seek a distance for his next start.